{"id":22251,"date":"2026-02-16T08:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22251"},"modified":"2026-02-16T08:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:15:26","slug":"t20-world-cup-australia-add-steve-smith-to-their-squad-before-crucial-sri-lanka-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22251","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: Australia add Steve Smith to their squad before crucial Sri Lanka match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Batter Steve Smith has been added to Australia&#8217;s T20 World Cup squad in time for Monday&#8217;s crucial match against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Smith, 36, travelled to Sri Lanka as cover after captain Mitchell Marsh was hit in the groin area last week and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/c4gjlgpgny0o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">suffered &#8220;testicular bleeding&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Smith was not officially added to the squad, with the management waiting to see how the situation developed, but now comes in as a replacement for bowler Josh Hazlewood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hazlewood was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/crrngryzknlo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">ruled out on the eve of the tournament<\/a> and not replaced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Selector Tony Dodemaide said: &#8220;With Steve here, along with some uncertainty around Mitch and Marcus Stoinis, it made sense he is activated and available for selection in time for the match, if required.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Smith has not played a T20 for Australia since February 2024 but scored a century and two fifties in six matches in the Big Bash after the Ashes in January, leading some to suggest he should have been in Australia&#8217;s squad regardless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Australia&#8217;s batters have struggled in the tournament so far, bowled out for 146 all out in a 23-run defeat by Zimbabwe to leave their place in the Super 8s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They beat Ireland by 67 runs in their opening match but also lost 3-0 in Pakistan prior to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Australia will be eliminated from the World Cup if they lose to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe beat Ireland on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They may need to win both their remaining games and rely on net run-rate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/c5yrvld7925o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Batter Steve Smith has been ad&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[251],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}